


Two Scared Little Runaways

by meraculas



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Bleach Obsessed Mack, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Foot Massage, Grief/Mourning, Head Injury, Pre-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Rare Pairings, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-11
Updated: 2015-10-24
Packaged: 2018-04-25 20:32:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4975531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meraculas/pseuds/meraculas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wanda is fleeing the Avengers after losing control during a moment of grief. Lincoln is running from the people that want to capture or kill him. Or perhaps they're just running to each other.</p>
<p>Now with final chapter smut.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. We are crooked souls

**Author's Note:**

> I own nadda. In fact this is totally inspired by [ozhawk's](http://archiveofourown.org/users/ozhawk/pseuds/ozhawk/) [Crackship](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2658407/chapters/5941115/) [Armada](http://archiveofourown.org/works/4167942/chapters/9408057/). I am on board and ready to go down if something causes that ship to sink. Please don't ever sink. Story and chapter titles come from Switchfoot's amazing song [The Shadow Proves the Sunshine](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTR7pCEZhhI/).

# Chapter One - We are crooked souls

          _"You will never be alone."_

          Wanda awoke with a start and a strangled scream. Breathing heavily, she looked about the dark room she was in, where was he, where was Pietro? He had to be here somewhere, he was her twin, her other half. They shared a soul, so where was he?

          The door opened with what could almost be called a frantic hiss, if something that always opened at the same mechanical speed could do so, and she had to shield her eyes against the harsh white light. Seeing the dark outline of a man that was most certainly not her brother, she scurried back on her bed, through the mess of tangled bed sheets, until her back hit the headboard of her bed.

          A concerned, if slightly monotonic voice asked, "Wanda what is it?" It took her several seconds of sheer panic to place why that voice was familiar. Vision. By the time she had it figured out he was beside her bed, but somehow she was now sitting atop her headboard, back pressed against the wall and covered in a cold sweat.

          He reached out a tentative hand, trying to calm her, at least she imagined that was why. Remembering where half of his mind came from, he could just as easily be trying to strangle her. The thought of Ultron forced her back further into the wall and a terrified whimper from her throat.

          "It is alright, Wanda, you are safe." He said. So he was trying to calm her. Realizing that, she threw herself from the wall into his arms. They caught her without effort and hugged her to him. At the first feeling of his synthesized skin against her own flesh, her tears began to fall.

          She didn't know how long he held her, or how long she cried into him, but in time she found herself calming. Pulling her head from the crook of his neck, she rested her cheek against his chest. Sniffling she whispered, "He was always telling me I would never be alone."

          She could have sworn Vision gasped beneath her, but he was at ultimate truth a machine, he had no need for air. Sniffling still, he began to stroke her hair. "You are not alone, you have us, Wanda. You have me."

          Not sure why, she smiled against him, she had no reason to smile. "That's not true. Pietro was more than just my brother, he was my twin. We shared a single soul." She paused to let her companion understand her words, while a hand absently rose to rub her chest, no, her aching heart. "Pietro always said, always promised, he would always be there for me. Not even our soulmates could separate us, for while a soulmate is the perfect companion for your soul, Pietro and I were one soul."

          "Wanda," he begins hesitantly, "you do know I don't have a mark."

          She looks up at him, slowly, through tear soaked lashes, "I know." Her hand traces his jaw as she leans in for a kiss.

          "But you do." He adds, just as she is about to kiss him. Hating him, hating this man she has come to love in the months since her home was destroyed and her brother killed, she closes her eyes and kisses him. She's not sure what she imagines whenever she kisses him, but it is not Vision's face that she sees. She knows she is kissing him, but whenever she does, she cannot see him.

          He is unresponsive, he's always that way when she seeks comfort after a nightmare, so she pulls back. "Why must you do that?"

          "It is not me you want Wanda." He whispers into her hair, "You cling to me because I saved you from the death of your home and your brother, but it is not me you want." He sounds almost sad over that fact.

          She looks at him through her wet lashes, "Then why are you here?" It hurts to choke the question out, it has every time they've had this conversation. Unfortunately, they've had this discussion a lot in the past few days, if she didn't know better Wanda might think Vision was planning on breaking up with her.

          "Because you need someone, and for the time being, I would like to be that person."

          Suddenly angry at him for finally answering that question, a question he has always avoided, she shakes her head and pushes him away. "Get out." He stays and watches her, calm in the face of her anger. It makes her angrier and she balls her fists, a single neuron in her brain aware of the red haze of power around her hands, a single neuron aware that her eyes are glowing a matching red as she screams "GET OUT!" and points angrily towards the door.

          It's as her boyfriend in thrown from the room, through the metal door that takes 13.6 seconds to open, that Wanda realizes what she has done. She just attacked her teammate, the one person that has never danced around her and the fact that during the fight with Ultron she lost everything.

          She crumbles onto her bedspread, and lets loose the torrent of emotions and sheer grief over her loss, something she has been holding in because wallowing in grief was not conducive to good teamwork, as her power rips through her room. The wardrobe - which she spent a humorous day of bonding over watching Rhodey, Sam, and Cap try and fail to put together, only for Natasha to shove them aside and try herself - reduced to splinters in the wake of her emotional torrent, the same was matched in the effect to her desk, nightstand, and in varying degrees the small trinkets she had obtained to decorate the small room. Her power melts through the walls of the room, tearing the wallpaper away from the metal walls, and rend the punctured door from its frame. If Wanda was in any sane state at the moment, she might have laughed at seeing the door fall around Vision, who hadn't moved since he landed, to frame him in the exact way he pierced it.

          Slowly, she raises her head and looks at everything she has done, it won't be until a few days later that what she saw finally emerges fully formed in her mind. At that moment, though, all she sees is the rubble of her home, and super imposed over Vision is an illusion of Pietro's body. She screams at the sight, and runs from the room, and the Avenger's compound, in nothing but a pair of short sleep shorts and the shirt Pietro had chucked before he returned home to die.

          She does not see or hear her teammates emerge from their rooms, does not hear Natasha's horrified, "What has she done?" Does not hear Cap's strangled, "I never knew-" Does not hear Rhodey's pained, "Why would she hide this?" Does not hear Sam's awed, "I thought she had healed." She certainly does not hear Vision whisper "Wanda is the most powerful of us all, and the most broken."


	2. trying to stay up straight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spot the cameo, kudos cookies if you can name him! Personally, I don't know how he got here.

# Chapter Two - trying to stay up straight

          _"My life is in ruins."_

          Lincoln woke with a start, when the hell did he fall asleep? He looked quickly around him, taking in the nearly empty bus and the run down view outside his window, which now had a mark on the glass from where his overheated forehead had been using it as a pillow. He pulled up the fallen hood of his sweatshirt, determined to stay anonymous, and pulled the bell signaling the driver to let him off at the next available stop.

          He exited, completely lost as to where he was. That was good, he told himself as he shrugged his knapsack higher on his back, if he didn't know where he was then no one else would. Sighing, he walked down the street, head down and shoulders hunched. His watch said it was a little after one in the morning, but that didn't mean he would go unnoticed.

          Turning into an alley at the sound of far off footsteps, he slumped against the brick wall of some building and whispered a prayer to a God he wasn't all the sure he believed in anymore. After all, what God would want a monster like him? He blindly followed a mad woman on her quest to basically bring an end to humanity. Looking back he had to ask himself why he never even questioned a single one of her actions, even if it had been something small he might be able to find something redeeming about himself, but he never had. Groaning, he leaned back into the wall, perhaps a little too forcefully since he also painfully banged his skull on the brick.

          Perhaps he should pray to Thor. After all he was supposed to be a God, and he had to understand something about Lincoln's predicament, just look at his brother. Loki had tried to conquer the Earth. Compared to Jiaying's trying to eradicate all non-Inhuman's, Loki's plan of enslavement was actually a little better. He had to laugh even hearing himself think that. How could bringing forth an alien army to conquer a planet be better than wiping out a portion of its population? What's next, was he about to rationalize Ultron's motivation in destroying everyone on the planet?

          A crash further down the alleyway pulled Lincoln from his musings, which he had to admit was a good thing. Looking out the alley's mouth into the street with its dimly flickering lights, he turned back to the alley and took a tentative step forward.

          "Who's there?" He called out cautiously, his hands raised in case it was someone hostile and he needed to defend himself. Not that he was exceptionally skilled at fighting, but his training with Alisha in Afterlife had clearly paid off on the Iliad, and against her which had surprised him. There had also been those self-defence classes in high school, and in the start of med school to help reassure his now ex-girlfriend after the campus rape scare. So okay, maybe he did have a fairly strong working knowledge of unarmed combat, but he also had to admit, he was more likely to use his powers if he needed to defend himself.

          All in all, it turned out to be nothing when another few steps, after his question was met with silence, revealed a family of rats rooting through what smelled like week old garbage. He hastily covered his nose against the smell and turned back towards the alley entrance.

          It was three seconds after he collided with the wooden fence at the other end of the alley that he remembered how horror movies and the start of police procedurals worked. A cat in the abandoned alley calms the racing heart, then the killer strikes. It was as he was pushing himself onto his knees, trying to make the alley stop spinning, that his brain idly started playing the theme music to Criminal Minds and he wondered if it would be Rossi or Hotchner that investigated where his body was found. When things finally stopped spinning he found himself staring at the disturbing sight of a completely normal looking guy, except for a nose that had been broken at least five times, in black Kevlar carrying - was that a _bazooka_? Oh yeah, just his luck that his demented death would be Criminal Minds appropriate and not CSI, he loved Ted Danson's character, and maybe it was a slowly forming concussion, but Lincoln couldn't remember the CSI theme.

          The strange guy slung the bazooka over his shoulder, pulled out a hand gun and aimed to fire at him. Oddly enough, all Lincoln could manage as he ducked away from the hail of bullets was "it's by The Who, I know that."

          Hiding behind an industrial garbage bin the rats had been enjoying, he took a second to catch his breath; throwing himself on his side, he let out a blast of electricity at the clearly deranged man with far too much fire power. Lincoln only figured the last bit out after the guy had been knocked unconscious by the attack and he was searching him, because his definitely concussed brain had finally caught up to what was happening and wanted to know who this guy was and why he was after him.

          He didn't find the guy's name but there was a photograph of a blonde haired man that at a distance could definitely pass as Lincoln. Great, he thought idly as he pushed himself unsteadily to his feet, nearly killed because of a mistaken identity. Then his brain when crazy again and whispered at him, Criminal Minds would eat that up. He pushed the heel of his hand into his right eye and left the alley, two of the stranger's guns tucked into the band of his jeans, one at his front, the other hidden at the small of his back beneath his knapsack. A block later he stopped, unable to stand the feel of the gun's cold, metal barrel next to his cock, and slid it into his bag.

          After another few blocks, he came to a small bridge and with his pack acting as a cushion sat down. He'd paid attention to the street signs in a vain attempt to figure out where he possibly was. He'd boarded the bus in Cincinnati, he knew it was heading for Hartford, and had major stops scheduled in Columbus, Pittsburgh, and New York before reaching the end. He'd gotten off somewhere before Hartford, he was sure of it, he was also certain he was no longer in Ohio.

          Frustrated, Lincoln slammed his head back against the pillar he sat against, and immediately regretted it. He raised a hand carefully and felt around, alright, no blood anywhere, but he was almost certain he had a concussion. Being alone, that definitely meant he wasn't going to be getting any sleep, even more so with whoever that was he'd already run into. Sighing, he stood up, collected his bag, and took off. Maybe once he figured out where he was things would be a little easier.


	3. Dry eyes in the pouring rain

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I said this was a soulmate AU didn't I? I guess I should work on getting our couple to meet.

# Chapter Three - Dry eyes in the pouring rain

          Wanda wove her way through the crowded streets without any thought of where she was going. All she knew was that she was alone. Alone and very much unsure of where she was. Maybe she should have stayed at the compound. She stopped to lean against a newsstand, no staying there was not an option after what she had done. Time away had cleared her fogged mind and showed her what had really happened, and after that she might never be able to go back.

          A taxi crawled past her, the driver leaning on the horn startling her out of her horrified recollections. She pulled the hem of Pietro's shirt down further as she caught a man ogling her on the sidewalk across the street. The shirt was much too big, covering the far too short sleep shorts she had been wearing when she ran, and the sleeves covering her hands. While she had managed to find a pair of runners before really leaving the base, that was all she had with her, and they were a size too small. She didn't even have any money.

          Not that a lack of monetary funds could stop her if she really wanted something, like pants, she just didn't want to have to steal from anyone. Though seeing now just how many men really were eyeing her bare legs, she might need to make up her mind on the whole stealing idea. There was no way in this or any world, that she was going to change her shirt though. Nothing could take what little she had left of her brother from her.

          Wrapping her arms around herself she continued down the street trying as hard as she could to ignore that fact that men were watching her. Only once you know something it's a little hard to forget it. Ducking into a store front, she looked around at the shelves filled with books. It got her away from most of the staring but she still needed pants. She waved off the shop attendant that came to greet her, asking if there was anything she needed help with.

          She took her time wandering through the store shelves even though she had no intention of buying anything, not that she could. She just wanted to get away from the leering. She stopped when she came across a book in the wellness section, some part of her brain couldn't make out the title but it gave her pause. Somewhere out there, someone else had lost Pietro. Someone, whose soul was a perfect match to his, had lost him without ever meeting him.

          As suddenly as that thought washed over her, she recalled the whispered conversation she'd had with him as they prepared to join the Avengers in the fight with Ultron. He'd promised he'd always be with her, and she promised the same to him. Then he'd joked about maybe meeting his soulmate, as he'd ran a hand over the elegant script on the side of his ribs reading "she can hear you, and she is trying to make sure you don't die."

          Anger welled up inside of her and she shut her eyes against the sudden spill of tears. Where had Pietro's soulmate been when he needed her? Where had _she_ been when her brother needed _her_? Her hands came up to push at the shelf and with a burst of red, it flew across the shop.

          She looked horrified at the shop attendant and other patrons before running to the back and through the employee only door. She paused once the door closed behind her to understand where she was, then ran for the door with the glowing exit sign above it. Pushing it open, she found herself in a derelict alley.

 

          Lincoln was stopped in front of the window for an electronics' shop. The televisions on the other side of the glass display window showing a news report with his face. When he'd first spotted the photo a few blocks back on the cover of an abandoned newspaper, he'd made sure to pull his hood closer to his face; now he was frozen in shock, staring at his face reflecting off a glass window with his face on the other side.

          A couple brushed past him and he raised his arm to cover his face as he watched them continue past. They didn't even bother to apologize for walking into him. He turned back to the display window, his still damaged brain wondering why they couldn't find a better photo to use, he looked like a golden retriever begging for food in that picture.

          Someone from inside the shop came out, "Ya gonna stand there all day pal, news ain't free ya know."

          Some idiotic part of him, perhaps the part that was living in the concussion zone of his brain, wanted to pick a fight with the guy. The other part, the one that saw a couple of cops on the other side of the street decided only to say, "I thought you wanted to bring in customers, not get rid of them."

          He turned and hurried away from the store, head down, before the shop keeper's angry exclamation could become more than just threats. He wandered aimlessly for several blocks, extra vigilant in making sure he wasn't spotted until he wandered past a ratty looking apartment building. He eyed it for a full half minute before continuing on his way, a block away he turned back and walked past it again. He continued on that way, never getting more than two blocks from the building before he finally went up to the front door and forced it open on an ominous sounding creak.

          The part of his brain still stuck in the alley from the other night went crazy. Thoughts of the Criminal Minds cast entering the building, and Morgan asking Reed what sane person would have come in here, buzzing through his mind. He rubbed the heel of his hand against his right eye, he had seen his reflection in that window, and half that side of his face was bruised, probably why his constant headache was also centered on that side.

          Cautiously he opened the first door and found the apartment abandoned and empty. It took several minutes, all of them had him on edge, but Lincoln found the whole building to be in much the same state. Several rooms on the upper floors looked like something had exploded into them, and there were drops of blood in places, but the place was still standing and empty.

          He sat down in someone's kitchen chair and considered his options. There was still food in the refrigerators, and with no effort on his part he could use his powers to get a fridge working again. He could easily do the same to get some of the other electronics going, he hoped, and this place was looking better than anywhere else to hide out for a while.

          Mind made up, he rose from the chair, laid a careful hand on the nearby fridge and pushed a short burst of electricity into it. Hearing the slight hum of the old appliance start up, he turned away and began getting food from the abandoned apartments in the building. Half an hour later he had the cupboards and fridge in the second floor apartment he had claimed for himself filled. Most of the produce he had just chucked out a third floor window into the alley below, but he'd found a few items he could salvage for his fridge.

          He let himself relax on the sofa in front of a television he had brought back to life; clicking through the channels he found a news station, and listened to the reporter call him a dangerous alien that needed to be found. Alien, not much better than monster. Angrily, he threw the remote at the television and watched it crash against the flat screen, when it didn't turn off, he sent a shock of electricity at it and watched it explode in a shower of sparks.

          Lincoln was considering the merits of heading out, maybe seeing if he could find out what had happened to the building he was in, when something slammed into his chest and threw him across the room.

 

          Wanda was lost. She'd been sticking to alleys since leaving the bookshop, but without the street signs she had absolutely no idea where she was. Just after she left the store, she'd heard the wail of police sirens, she didn't know if they were coming for her because of what she had done in the store or not but she wasn't going to risk it. The alleys also had the added bonus of keeping her away from the wandering eyes of leering men.

          She turned into another alley, this one strewn with food waste, and slumped against the wall. Perhaps she should have at least looked at the street sign she'd seen when she'd ventured into the near empty street. It looked residential and she was pretty sure she was using an apartment building to keep her upright, but the United States were so different from Sokovia. She closed her eyes against the rising pain of her loss, she knew she needed to get past it, but how was someone supposed too?

          Pushing herself away from the wall, she turned towards the mouth of the alley. Wanda had barely taken a step forward when she frantically threw herself back against the wall of the building. Horrified she watched as a man fell through the air, accompanied by a rain of wooden debris. He landed in a pile of trash with a pained groan.

          Running over to help him up, she offered her hand when she saw him slip on something. He was handsome, fluffy blonde hair and some scruff on his face, the right half of which was covered in an ugly bruise. He had a cut over his right eye and blood was leaking down, painting his right eye in an inky crimson red. But his eyes, she couldn't identify the colour of them, at first glance she thought they were a simple green, but a second look had her wondering if they were actually a grey-green. He smiled up at her, and again she amended her opinion of his eye colour, they were definitely blue.

          He was unsteady, swaying on his feet and she held him steady with her hands on his ribs. Again he smiled, this time a little lopsided and asked a question Wanda would never have imagined hearing at this particular moment, "What colour's your hair?" His words slurred together a bit, but he had definitely just said the words that were written in a messy scrawl across the back of her left ankle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should say, with episode 3 of the show coming tonight, that I began planning/writing this little story after the first episode aired and there was nothing between what I had written that contradicted episode two so I didn't need any rewrites. Given what we know from the promo for tonight's episode, though, this will become even further from canon than what it already was, and will likely be tagged appropriately - likely tomorrow once we know what happens.
> 
> Also, on a slightly humorous note I've got it in my head that the word's Pietro would (maybe would have, maybe will) say to his soulmate if (when?) he meets her are 'where were you when I had died?' Reassuring or disturbing to have?


	4. Hold fast till the break of day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They've met, they've met! Hip-hip hooray! Now to survive.

# Chapter 4 - Hold fast till the break of day

          Wanda was frozen in shock and so missed seeing the hulking grey figure looking out the hole that her soulmate fell through. She didn't exactly see him jump down to land next to them but she definitely saw him raise his hands, his grey hands glowing with a white sort of light and make to grab her companion. Using the hands she hand on him to keep him from falling over, she pushed her soulmate back into the garbage and ducked under the strange man's arm, thrusting her own glowing red hands up towards his chest.

          The monster flew backwards, crashing into the brick wall. The light from his hands causing the part of the wall they came in contact with to disintegrate. Seeing that, Wanda took a breath, glanced behind her at her soulmate, who was trying to push himself back to his feet, squared her shoulders and turned to look at their attacker, eyes and hands glowing ominously.

          She had lost her brother, her home, she had failed to protect them, she was not going to let that happen to her soulmate. Raising her arms, she forced her grief, her anger, everything she had into collecting and strengthening the power of her blast before hurling it at the thing that had begun to rush her. Again he flew backward into the wall, through the wall even.

          Taking a step forward, knowing from her training with Cap that the enemy isn't down until you can lay your hands on him and not have him move to attack, she was stopped by a hand around her arm pulling her back. Turning she saw her soulmate's anxious gaze, not looking at her but where that _thing_ had landed, "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

          "I am saving your life, would you rather I not next time?" She asked him calmly, hoping that those words were written somewhere on his skin.

          They must have been because his eyed widened slightly as he nodded, "How about we discuss that after we survive this." It wasn't a question, Wanda knew that from his inflections, and it also meant that he intended to stick around.

          She was just about to ask what he thought he could do against this monster when the thing in question rose through the dusty hole and smiled at them, "Huh, two inhumans, good."

          She raised her hands to attack him again when from next to her a blast of lightning shot forth from her soulmate's hands. Allowing a slight smile, she threw her own red energy at their grey attacker. He remained standing this time, holding onto the bottom of the brick hole he'd made, an unnerving smile on his grotesquely contoured face. Next to her, her soulmate - she really needed to get his name - collapsed to one knee but kept up his attack. She'd have loved to call and collect more energy to her, but that would mean halting her own attack and she would not risk such a maneuver.

          Suddenly her soulmate stopped and tackled her to the side. She looked to him confused, and found him drunkenly pulling himself up as he pulled on her arms trying to pull her up with him. He looked back at their surprised attacker, "We need to run, we can't fight him, we're barely doing anything."

          On her feet she saw now that he was right. All of that and that thing was simply shaking some dirt from his hair, dreadlocks, quills? What were those things on his head and down his back? Nodding in shock at the sight, she grabbed her soulmate's forearm as he grabbed hers and together they ran out into the street.

 

          Lincoln pulled his soulmate, look at this he found his soulmate, around a corner and into another alley. They'd already run at least two blocks from where that thing that had first attacked him at the hospital was, had been? It had been following them since they had exited the alley.

          He had to stop, letting go of the pretty brunette's arm he leaned against the wall clutching a stitch in his side and tried to catch his breath. Doing so he took the time to also really look at her, when he'd first seen her his head had been swimming and the world was an odd fuchsia colour. He was pretty sure he had said something to her, but he wasn't entirely certain, which meant that if he had, it had probably been something obnoxious. He might need to apologize for those stupid words she'd spent her life living with.

          She looked down at him, also breathing heavily, her brown eyes looking him over. His medical training telling him her assessing gaze was searching for injuries. He was forced to wonder just who his soulmate was, she was clearly able to handle herself in hostile situations, and she had powers, that was pretty damn obvious after the display she had put on back there against whoever this other Inhuman was. Which also forced Lincoln to ask who the hell that guy was, and why had he tracked him down _twice_ with what was definitely the intention to kill him.

          Still short of breath but hearing their pursuer getting close, he pointed at himself and forced his exhausted lungs to speak, "Lincoln."

          She smiled at him, it was bright but also sad somehow, "Wanda."

          Wanda, that was a pretty name. He looked around the alley, saw that it had more than just the opening they came through and pointed at the back entrance, "We should-" She nodded in understanding and helped him to stand straight again, together they took off down the alley.

          They'd turned into another as they heard their not-friend enter the one they had just left behind. Weaving their way through alleys and streets, they managed to stay ahead of their pursuer, but Lincoln was starting to think he'd taken one too many hits and in addition to his concussion he'd probably, at minimum, bruised a rib at some point based on the growing pain in his aforementioned ribs. He wasn't sure how much more running he could manage.

          Pulling Wanda into another alley, he stopped and collapsed against a stack of food crates. Doubled over, a hand gingerly holding his injured ribs he again tried to catch his breath. Wanda kept a protective watch at the entrance, but looked back at him to ask, "Who is this person, why is he after you?"

          Her foreign lilt swept over him, drawing him in, she was probably from somewhere in Eastern Europe. It took a minute for his addled brain to understand her words, he shook his head. "Don't know. Not the first time we've met though."

          Slowly she nodded, "He said something earlier, Inhuman. What is that?"

          He looked up from the dirt stained concrete to look at her. She was clearly in control of her powers, she must have had training at some point, so how could she not know about Inhumans? "Inhumans are people with the hereditary genetic potential to obtain powers if they undergo a process called Terrigenesis. Or, apparently, ingest some tainted fish oil pills."

          She looked at him confused, then down at her hands before back at him, "I am not Inhuman. My brother and I, we submitted ourselves to being experimented on by Hydra in order to protect our home, that is how we received our powers." She looked away from him and back the way they had come, "Are you Inhuman?"

          Hydra? She'd been affiliated with Hydra? He shook his head, she seemed so nice. But then that hatred and fear of Hydra, and SHIELD, had been instilled into him by Jiaying, and Jiaying was not to be trusted. Who knew where Hydra really stood in the grand scheme of things. "Yes, I'm an Inhuman, and I'm pretty sure that guy is too."

          She turned back to him, "He is trying to kill you, is he not? Why would he want to kill someone like himself?"

          "I have no idea." He tried to push himself up off the crates, wobbled and fell back down. "Damn it, I'd have been better at this if that maniac from last night hadn't gotten me confused with someone else." Wanda looked at him quizzically, and he remembered why his back was seriously killing him. He still had that gun he'd taken off that idiot tucked down the back of his jeans, and now also into his back. Reaching back, he pulled it out and tried really hard to ignore the blood on the barrel because there was no question that blood was his.

          Wanda stared at the weapon shocked, "Where did you get that?"

          His brain went sideways and he stupidly said, "From the gun shaped indented in my back." He winced in pain after his smartass remark caused him to laugh. The pain readjusted his brain again, "Sorry, I took it off a guy that tried to kill me with a bazooka last night."

          Her brow furrowed and she turned away from him, "How many people want you dead?"

          "Last night was a case of mistaken identity. He thought I was someone I wasn't." He paused looking at the gun not sure what to do with it now, "As for a number I don't know. My face is in the news, the government is looking for me and I don't know why, but they're calling me a dangerous alien. SHIELD is probably looking for me too. Then of course there is our friend out there."

          She turned to look at him so suddenly that Lincoln braced himself to start running again, "Why are SHIELD looking for you?"

          He breathed a sigh of relief at her question, he was not going to be able to run at that moment, "When I first met that guy, I was working in a hospital. SHIELD, well an Inhuman in SHIELD, came to see me about helping her with something. The guy attacked and Daisy said she could help protect me, instead I ran. Daisy was a friend once, if only for a few weeks, and despite how I've acted towards her she's a nice person, she might be looking but I doubt it."

          Wanda left her post and came to sit next to him, still placing herself between the alley entrance and him, "I ran away from the Avengers when all they wanted was to help me." He watched as a tear slowly rolled down her cheek and took her hand in one of his, lacing their fingers together, "My brother died in Sokovia, I have not mourned him, and I know I must. Pietro would want me to, but he was my twin, I cannot simply let him go like that. They want me to heal, but I do not want to because I am afraid that would mean that I would forget Pietro."

          "The twins." He whispered softly as he pulled his grieving soulmate against him in a hug. He remembered what that Hydra doctor had been saying after he'd been captured, he'd hung onto every word hoping for a clue on how to escape. Wanda must have heard him as she looked up at him.

          He was about the explain what had happened during his time with Hydra but they were interrupted by a furious roar and the rumbling sound of the earth moving beneath them. He and Wanda looked at each other before both springing to their feet, which Lincoln's entire body protested about. They both headed carefully towards the mouth of the alley, hands raised to attack. And ran into Mack.

          "Come on, Daisy thinks she can hold him off." The bald, hulking, black man grabbed them both, pulled them out of the alley and dragged them into an unmarked black SUV. He climbed in after them, held the door open and yelled for Daisy to hurry up and get in. With a quick glance in their direction, she broke off her attack and ran for the vehicle. All of this took less than a minute, and Lincoln's injured brain was still trying to figure out where the hell Mack came from even as the SUV took off with a screech.


	5. The Shadow Proves the Sunshine

# Chapter Five - The Shadow Proves the Sunshine

          Wanda wasn't sure who these people were, but the big man had called the woman Daisy and Lincoln had mentioned a friend named Daisy, so a part of her was inclined to trust them. For now. They sped away from their furious attacker and then wove into slower traffic, joining the steady stream of anonymous vehicles.

          "Who are you people?" She asked once her heart had stopped racing. Lincoln was looking disturbingly pale next to her in the back seat of the SUV.

          "My name's Daisy, I'm with SHIELD and I'm a friend of Lincoln's." The woman with a wavy brunette bob said. "Who are you?"

          She looked carefully at Daisy and the man that had dragged them into the car, she also spied the driver through the rear-view mirror. Lincoln trusted Daisy, she was his friend, she could trust them as well, besides, SHIELD had helped save all those people in Sokovia. "Wanda, Lincoln's soulmate."

          Daisy seemed startled by the admission, the driver cursed, and the black man hung his head and muttered something about private rooms and public spaces and bleach. The big man was still muttering away about bleach as the driver caught her eye through the mirror, "And how do you fit into what's going on here?"

          Lincoln shifted next to her, he looked seconds away from passing out. "The twins." The driver cursed when he heard Lincoln manage to gasp out the same strange moniker Hydra had bestowed upon her and Pietro before he passed out. Her heart clenched as she was momentarily seized with the fear that he had died. Died just like everything she loved.

          Wanda gasped and clutched at his shoulder, calling his name. Daisy reached around in her seat and felt Lincoln's pulse point on his neck. "Coulson we need to get him to a medical team." She called out to the driver, likely this Coulson fellow.

          The driver cursed again and swerved out of the monotonous stream of traffic, speeding through alleys and back streets until they reached a small aircraft hanger on the edge of town. The driver and the big guy carefully picked Lincoln up, the big guy by the shoulders and the driver by his ankles, while Daisy directed her towards some sort of jet. It looked a bit like the small ones SHIELD had had during the battle over, or perhaps around Sokovia since it was also in the air.

          They all loaded in, the big guy headed towards the cockpit, while the driver and Daisy worked to secure Lincoln to a black gurney. Wanda hovered to the side the whole while, she'd heard stories saying that you could feel when a soulmate neared death, and certainly when they did die, but she didn't feel any sort of prickling burn in her ankle where his words were stamped, proclaiming to everyone whose she was and who was hers. When they stepped back she laid a gently glowing hand on Lincoln's chest, and willed him to get better. Nothing happened, but she thought she felt his heart beat stronger in his chest.

          The driver gently took her by the shoulders and directed her to a seat and helped strap her in. A short minute later, they took off. She looked away from Lincoln's bruised and bloody face "Where are we going?"

          The driver and Daisy shared a look, "back to SHIELD headquarters, miss Maximoff." The driver informed her curtly, "I'm Director Coulson by the way, it's nice to meet you." He extended a black gloved hand by a fraction, withdrew it and offered her the other ungloved one to shake. She stared at him for a second longer than she probably should have and then accepted. "That's Mack" he said pointing towards the cockpit "and you met Skye."

          "Daisy." The woman cut in with a huff of frustration.

          "Right, sorry that's Daisy. How is no one else having trouble with that?" He asked but seemed to not expect a reply. "So I have to ask, what are you doing out in Hell's Kitchen? Are the Avengers looking into this masked vigilant in the area because SHIELD never considered him to be of any real consequence after an initial check, though we are keeping tabs."

          Wanda shook her head, not entirely sure what Coulson was talking about, "I ran away. Lincoln, he was thrown out of an apartment building by that man." She looked away from the director and towards her injured soulmate, "Do you know who it was?"

          "No." That was Daisy speaking, "We know he's been hunting down and killing Inhumans, but we don't know anything else about him. Did you and Lincoln find anything? Even the smallest thing could help us figure out who he is."

          For the rest of the flight to SHIELD's headquarters Wanda told them everything she could about their fight with the strange Inhuman. Mack called back that they were about to begin landing when Wanda panicked. She reached across to Coulson and grabbed his arm, "Please, do not tell the Avengers where I am."

          His brow furrowed but he agreed, "I won't, besides, they think I'm dead. So when you go back if you could keep that I'm not quiet, I'd be grateful." The man confused her but she nodded. The ramp lowered and a tall blonde woman in a white lab coat greeted them, ushering Lincoln along a series of hallways and into a room that looked very much like a hospital ward where proper looking doctors were waiting to take care of her soulmate.

 

          Lincoln didn't so much as wake up as he did just slowly float into consciousness. He slowly became aware of the feel of a hand in his, then maybe a few minutes - or perhaps an hour - later he began to register the feel of something heavy on his abdomen, later he began to hear people moving around him, then the sounds of medical equipment beeping out a steady rhythm. After that voices began to register, it took longer for words to become coherent but in time they did. At some point his eyes also began to open, he didn't remember wanting to open them.

          Looking slowly about the room, the first thing he noticed was the pretty brunette using his stomach as a pillow. It took him a moment to remember that the stunning woman was his soulmate. Now wasn't he just a lucky man? The next thing that really registered was that he was hooked up to medical equipment in a room blazoned with the SHIELD eagle on the wall; if it weren't for his recent memories and his soulmate he'd think he had just been rescued from Hydra. He felt just about the same.

          He shifted hoping to get a better look around the room, but Wanda began to stir. She looked up at him, fear, worry, and hope in her wide brown eyes and smiled when she saw he was awake. Squeezing his hand, she leaned over and hugged him carefully before laying a gentle kiss to his brow. Pulling back she whispered in his ear, "it is brown."

          Lincoln felt his brow furrow, maybe he wasn't all together recovered from his concussion after all because he had no idea what the hell she was talking about. "What?" He managed to croak out on the fourth attempt at talking. God how long had he been out?

          "You asked what colour my hair is. It is brown." She smiled down at him, nervously tugging on the sleeves of her too long shirt. The same shirt she had been wearing when she had most definitely saved him from whoever that Inhuman was.

          He returned her smile and pulled her back towards him, which was awkward given where her chair was positioned and the edge of the bed. "And I am grateful that you saved my life, and would not object to you doing it again. Though I really hope I don't ever find myself in a position to need saving."

          She pulled herself onto the bed next to him, and he scooted over a bit to allow her room, curled against his side she looked up at him and whispered, "I hope so to."

          They lay like that for some time before Daisy came in and found them. She chuckled slightly at the sight and sat down in Wanda's abandoned chair. "We still don't know who that guy that was after you is, and we haven't been able to figure out where he went after we got you guys out of there. Coulson's trying to convince this Price woman that's leading the hunt for you to back down. Also, Coulson knows you don't want the Avengers knowing you're here Wanda, but Bobbi thinks we should at least let Hill know that you're safe. Coulson's been keeping in contact with her since feeding her the information on where Hydra was keeping Loki's sceptre, and she says that the big guns are worried."

          Lincoln didn't know who this Hill woman was or what Loki's sceptre had to do with anything, but he did feel his soulmate tense up in his arms. He looked at her and found her watching him. Her hand brushed lightly over his jaw as she whispered, "I do not know if I can go back. I attacked my teammates when I left."

          He knew his soulmate was fragile, had seen it when she had talked about her brother, had seen it in her eyes unspoken more than once as they were running, "Take your time, but Daisy said they're worried. At least letting them know you're okay would be good."

          She didn't look away from him as she told Daisy to let Hill know she was fine. But she made it clear that SHIELD had only seen her, not even Hill was allowed to know Wanda was with SHIELD at the moment. Daisy rose to get the message sent, but on her way out she turned back, "Hey Lincoln, good job on not frying the electrics waking up this time."

          He glared at her half heartedly, "That was because I was afraid, injured, and in a strange place." He looked down at Wanda, curled neatly against his side, an unearned love for him in her rich chocolate eyes and her hand still lightly stroking his jaw, "This time I had my soulmate."

          Daisy smiled and left, leaving Lincoln and Wanda alone huddled together on his hospital bed. He smiled down at her and silently promised himself to never let her go. Something whispered to him in the back of his mind that he was better to not say his promise aloud after everything she had lost.

          Both of them were damaged. Him from everything with Jiaying, and her from losing her brother. Perhaps together they might be able to heal each other. Leaning down, he took Wanda's chin in his hand and finally kissed his soulmate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd say 'the End' but we still have a smut chapter/epilogue. A smutilogue! If you don't like smut (WHAT?!) or are too young for it don't read the next (final) chapter, this one does end on a concluding note and you won't miss out on too much in the next.


	6. Shine On Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Smut epilogue! Smut alert! Consider that your warning, maybe, this is a first for me so the quality might not be up to snuff.

# Chapter Six - Shine On Me

          A month had passed since Wanda had met her soulmate, and sometimes the realization still astounded her. Lincoln had been released from the medical ward in SHIELD, and together they had been given a room. Actually, they had been given separate rooms, but after the first week of Wanda sneaking in and sleeping in Lincoln's bed, everyone had given up on the idea of their keeping separate quarters.

          Coulson wasn't having any luck getting the Price woman to stop looking for Lincoln, and when she learned that SHIELD had him in custody things had gotten ... less than pleasant. Price was still demanding to see Lincoln, and Wanda was getting worried Coulson might just give in. It had led to a very long conversation with slightly raised voices between Coulson and herself. That conversation ended with Wanda threatening to bring the Avengers into the discussion, something she was still considering to protect her soulmate from the government's reach.

          Lincoln had taken to training with Daisy for her Caterpillar program, though had declined to offer to join. Wanda had trained with Daisy and Lincoln a couple times, and had offered to help Daisy if they were needed in the field, like Lincoln, but just like her soulmate she had refused to join the team. Doctor Garner had cleared Lincoln for the program, but not her given her 'depression, resulting from the loss of her brother.'

          They'd just returned to their room after a rather grueling training session that included a friend of Daisy and Lincoln's, Mike Peterson, who was part cyborg and after a brief stint, with Lincoln, in Hydra hands had finally recovered. That simply meant SHIELD had gotten all his parts back on him and they had all been upgraded. Wanda prayed Tony never met Mike, the scarred man already had more than enough fire power.

          She lay on the bed, towel wrapped around her and her wet hair splayed on the pillows. She knew she should be getting dressed, Coulson was going to have another go at dissuading Price, and she wanted to be there for it, but she was exhausted after their workout. She heard the water turn off in their bathroom and sighed, knowing Lincoln was going to say something about her being lazy.

          She was sitting up, having managed nothing more than pulling her bra and underwear on, when Lincoln emerged through a haze of steam. His jeans hung low on his hips and he was toweling his hair dry, though why he needed to with such short hair was something she didn't understand. Of course she had long hair and was too lazy to dry it with anything other than natural air unless it was a special occasion, so maybe she wasn't the best to judge.

          Lincoln shot her an amused grin as he threw the towel over his shoulder and back into the bathroom. "Shouldn't you be dressed?"

          Shrugging she leaned into him when he stepped between her legs, bending to kiss her. "Too tired."

          "Want a foot rub?" He asked after rolling his eyes at her. She nodded happily and threw herself backwards further up the bed already moaning at the delirious thought. She had a weakness for foot rubs, and Wanda had quickly learned Lincoln was disturbingly skilled at giving them. "So easy to please." He muttered as he retrieved a bottle of foot lotion from the bedside stand.

          He began at her heel, working the lotion into the rough skin and slowly continued up her right foot. Pressing into the sole of her foot, he began adding pressure to work out the tension and then ... Wanda moaned loudly, her head thrown back in ecstasy as a slight pulse began in her foot. It had begun slightly uncomfortable but in seconds had grown into something far too pleasurable.

          "What ... are ... you ... doing?" Her question came in gasps.

          Lincoln looked up her body at her, and if whatever he was doing to her foot didn't send a shock of wet heat to her core, seeing his teasing smile looking up her body would have. "Electrotherapy."

          It was another few minutes of her simply enjoying the feel of his hands on her foot before she could speak again. "Is that not an old form of medicine that became a torture technique?"

          He laughed as he pressed his thumb into the soft flesh under her toes. "No, it's used to increase local blood flow, relaxing muscle spasms, and muscle rehabilitation." He continued massaging her foot, his talented hands sending light electrical currents into her foot. "I take it you like it?"

          "Mmm." She managed most coherently, and the fact that she managed as much as she had marvelled her. He continue massaging, getting each of her toes to melt from the toe-curling pleasure his hand's inspired, until the lotion he had used had been completely absorbed into her skin.

          He watched her, their eyes locked as he poured a dollop of lotion into his hand and began massaging her left foot, beginning at her arch before lightly working her heel and back to her toes. He'd begun adding the pressure when he added the light pulse of his power to the massage, and then his fingers brushed over his words on the back of her heel. It was always that way, he'd be careful with her left foot until it happened and he brushed the words, then he'd let up on the gentle. This time was no different.

          In minutes Wanda was moaning helplessly as she felt the approaching wave of her climax. It had taken them both by surprise the first time she had had an orgasm during a foot rub. Pietro had always balked at giving her them, calling the process boarding on pornography, but never had she had such a reaction before. Afterwards Lincoln postulated her reaction was due to the placement of her words and that soulmates were always said to be sensitive to the touch of the other on their spoken greeting. A few experiments later proved Lincoln's hypothesis correct and him changing to always starting with her right foot. Lincoln had much the same reaction when she brushed against the words on the back of his right shoulder.

          She came on a strangled scream, barely aware of the world around her except for the feel of Lincoln's hands on her foot, and one of his fingers tracing his messy doctor's calligraphy on the back of her heel. It took her a full two minutes to come down from her blissful high, and by the time she had Lincoln has kissed halfway up the inside of her leg. Sometime during her post-orgasm high, her panties had disappeared, she only realized that as he worked his way closer to her soaking mound. She fisted her hands in his hair as he reached her center, and shamelessly pulled when his mouth pulled on her clit.

          Abruptly he pulled away and sat back on his heels, nearly disappearing from view on the floor, and glared at her, "that hurt." She stared down at him, lower lip drawn between her teeth as she gave him a guilty smile and an innocent shrug. She didn't trust herself to speak, knowing it would turn into demanding pleas for more. He shook his head, a playful grin on his face as he spoke "I don't know why I put up with you sometimes."

          He laid a kiss to her stomach then returned to her wet core. He was thorough, pulling gently at her clit with his teeth as his fingers thrust into her. She tried to be gentle as her hands returned to fisting in his hair, holding him where he was and guiding him to where she wanted. Her right leg was thrown over his shoulder, while her left sat flat footed on his thigh, held in place by their bodies. It wasn't that they didn't want to bond, but they had both agreed to wait before they let their marks meet. He pulled his fingers from her and quickly replaced them with his tongue, his hand reaching down to her foot on his thigh to wrap around her ankle, his other hand holding her hips down. A finger ghosted across his writing as his mouth worked her to a screaming orgasm, his name echoing off the walls of their room, as her fingers dug deep into his scalp to hold him in place as she rode out her peak.

          When she finally came back to the world around her, Lincoln was still seated on the floor between her legs. His grip had loosened on her ankle and with a wicked smile she moved her foot to rub against the tented front of his jeans, he was gloriously hard beneath her foot. With a groan his head fell backward even as his hand moved to stop her from stroking him. He stood and moved to the side of the bed, undoing what had to now be a painful pair of jeans.

          Wanda grinned lazily up at him as he pushed the denim down his legs, simultaneously opening the nightstand drawer and pulling out the box of condoms. Rolling onto her stomach she crawled over and helped her soulmate shed his briefs even as she circled his engorged shaft with her hand, milking him. Above her, he cursed fluidly. "Wanda, I swear, you will be the death of me."

          Giggling with unbridled glee, she flipped back onto her back to look up at him. "You love it." Bending to his knees next to the edge of the bed he gave her an upside down kiss. Against her smiling lips he muttered his agreement.

          Standing back up, he pushed her over on the bed before playfully jumping onto it. If Wanda couldn't tell how hard he was, his playfulness might have her worried about an impending pillow fight. Instead, he pulled her atop him, her legs straddling his ribs as he deftly removed her bra and pulled one of her hard nipples into his mouth. Her back arched involuntarily, pushing her breasts further towards her accommodating soulmate even as a keening moan escaped her, followed quickly by pleas for more. He worked the tender flesh of her nipple in his mouth as one of his hands moved from where he held her up along her ribs to kneading her other breast, his hand releasing the same light electric pulses he had used on her feet. He took his time with her breast before moving to her other one, her over sensitized nipple freed from his mouth only to meet the therapeutic, if arousing, touch of his massaging hand.

          Enjoying the feel of her soulmate's talented mouth on her, so much so that she felt herself nearing the edge of an oncoming climax, she became very much aware of the fact that Lincoln had brought her to oblivion twice while he still stood hard. It was physically painful for her to pull away from his gifted mouth, but placing a kiss to his lips she wriggled her ass against his alert cock behind her eliciting a pained groan from him.

          Almost violently, he threw her to the side as he sat up and grabbed a wrapped condom from the box. Seeing his now eager need, she couldn't help but giggle, earning herself a glare. He'd just opened the condom when she took it from him, their eyes locked, his blown wide in lust, as she rolled the latex down his length with one hand, the other massaging his balls.

          They stayed like that for a few minutes more, him kneeling on the mattress, her laying on her stomach massaging his balls. "Fucking hell, if you don't stop I'm going to blow." Without any preamble, he pulled away and flipped her onto her back, but not before giving her a playful swat to the ass. She moaned as his tip brushed her entrance and cried out in bliss when he thrust into her. He stretched her, even after all their times together he was still large enough to do so, and with each thrust she felt him right against her womb, if not her heart. Even without having bonded she felt him everywhere and yet needed more all at the same time.

          Wrapping her legs around his hips, she locked her ankles and tried to pull him closer, even though her breasts were already flattened against his chest. He braced himself over her on his forearms, and one of her hands came to twine around his arm gripping his bicep; her other arm, her left, came to rest on his shoulder, her fingers digging into her words on his skin. "Fuck, deeper, harder." She panted her demands through clenched teeth as she met him thrust for thrust. His free arm rose from the bed to grip the headboard and she released the one she held so it could do the same, allowing his deep thrusts to reach further into her, nearly cleaving her in two but still not reaching far enough. Her free hand came up to grip the headboard between his. "Christ, more!" She shrieked, digging furrows into his shoulder and drawing blood around her writing.

          "Fuck woman, I'm not wasting a condom just so we can change positions." He thrust deep and held for a second longer than normal to accentuate his point, "So you're going to come like this," He thrust hard and deep than held still again, "and you are going to _fucking_ love it." With a final thrust she did just that, screaming his name incoherently to the empty room and loud enough that anyone along the hallway likely heard. He kept his now erratic rhythm and came himself just as she was finally falling from her high.

          Laying blissfully numb beneath him, she let her legs unlock and fall to the mattress as she released her white knuckled hold on the headboard and his shoulder. He rolled off her, removed the condom, knotted it, and tossed it into the rubbish bin under the nightstand. They both lay on their backs for a few minutes, still slightly high from their respective orgasms and tried to catch their breath.

          Finally finding her breathing steady, she curled into the crook of Lincoln's arm and rested her chin on the back of her hand in the center of his chest. "We should do that again."

          He laughed beneath her "I need recovery time. You're a very demanding partner." She shrugged and kissed him.

          "Clint texted me while we were training, he said Nathaniel was starting to sit up on his own." She turned away from Lincoln's intelligent gaze as she thought of how best to voice her wish to see the godson she shared with a teammate she was terrified of facing again. Lincoln had convinced her to reach out to Clint a couple days after he had woken, and Clint had promised to keep her location secret from his former teammates.

          His hand brushed lightly back and forth over her arm, reassuring her of her soulmate's presence as she thought of the infant that bore her brother's name in tribute of having saved his father. "You want to visit don't you?" She looked back to his blue eyes and nodded, worrying her lower lip between her teeth. "Do you want me to come with you?"

          She had to look away in an effort to hide the sudden moisture in her eyes. It amazed her how much Lincoln cared about her sometimes. She whispered "I would like that."

 

          It would be another week before Coulson finally gave them permission to leave the base, and that only happened when Clint Barton arrived himself in an angry huff. There was an hour long yelling match in the Director's office over him being alive, then a half hour argument over everything SHIELD had been up to since it had supposedly fallen, that that discussion only took a half hour was amazing. He left the office offering Coulson his thanks for the location of Loki's sceptre and the helicarrier that had saved so many Sokovian lives. He then marched Lincoln and Wanda onto the quinjet he had flown in on, and took them to his family's farm.

          Lincoln watched off to the side as his soulmate was greeted with a warm hug from Laura Barton and then nearly toppled to the rain wet ground by their two eldest children. Clint introduced him to his wife, who declared him as much family as Wanda and promptly hugged him as well. While Laura made them dinner and Wanda helped by keeping Cooper and Lila busy, all the while holding Nathaniel in her arms, Lincoln learned how Wanda had spent the whole month after the infant's birth with Clint's family, foregoing training with the Avengers and upsetting Cap.

          "Laura calls her sister, and the kids took to calling her aunt faster than they did Nat. Don't tell her that, though." The archer revealed handing him another beer as they stood out on the porch watching the grey storm clouds rolling back in.

          "Wanda needs this." He admitted after taking a pull, "She hasn't mourned her brother because she's afraid of what will happen after. She still has a ways to go, but this is the happiest I've ever seen her."

          "We both worry about her. Laura borders on mothering her sometimes, but we've both seen it, seen her try and hide the fact that she's still grieving. It's why I pushed to have her visit once Nate was born, then forced Cap to back off in getting her to go back. We're trying to get her to see that even though her brother's gone, he still lives. In her, in Nate-"

          "In you." He added eyeing the older man. "I've known you five hours, if that, and Laura's not the only one that sees her as a sister. Pietro died saving you, and you feel the need to protect his sister, honour him, take up his burden and show it wasn't in vein."

          Clint laughed and tipped his beer bottle towards Lincoln's own clinking the necks together, "That's deep."

          He shrugged, "I've seen it once before. I was working an ER shift in med school, and one of the doctors handed me this patient file for a kid that had been in maybe nine times in the past week. A couple months before he'd been in a bad car crash, only one to survive because his friend had pulled him from the wreckage before the thing went up in flames. This kid had been driving, but his friend died saving him and he couldn't handle the pressure of being the survivor, of trying to do right by what his friend stood for. He kept getting himself into fights trying to protect other people like his friend had."

          He looked away from the sky and caught a glimpse of Clint's profile. He stood watching the sky himself, beer held loosely in his hand halfway to his mouth and a thoughtful expression on his grief lined face. "Do you know what happened to the kid?"

          "Not really, but I heard about a halfway house in that area named for his dead friend that is supposed to be a safe haven for people being bullied."

          "Then he found a proper way to make sure his friend lived on." Clint finally moved his hand again and took a sip of his beer before turning and catching Lincoln's gaze. "Maybe that's what Wanda needs. Something she can build, or grow, to keep her brother's memory alive but would also help her finally mourn him." They turned back towards the approaching storm thinking of the deeply broken woman they both cared for until Laura called them inside for supper.

          That night in the cozy guest room Laura had provided them for their stay, "however long in may be and you are always welcome here, so don't feel the need to rush off." Lincoln lay on the bed and watched as Wanda dressed for the night. He thought of everything she had been through before they met. The loss of her parents, of having had to watch them die and then having to stare at their corpses out of fear of moving and dying herself. Of Wanda's subjecting herself to Hydra's experimentations in a vain hope to save her country. Of fighting for a cause she thought was honourable, only to learn it wasn't. Of losing her twin brother and her home, all in one simultaneous blow. Was it any wonder she was so broken inside? Was it any wonder why he loved her so much it physically hurt him at times?

          Smiling, he pushed himself up from the mattress and circled his arms around his soulmate's waist, drawing her to him. He placed a kiss to her shoulder and whispered against the shell of her ear, "I love you."

          She froze in his arms before slowly turning to watch him. It was the first time he had really spoken those words to her and not in an offhanded, half-hearted way. Her hands came up to bracket his face as she whispered back, "I love you too."

          Smiling, he leaned across what little space there was between them and kissed her. Lifting her up, his arms still wrapped firmly around her waist and hers now wrapped securely around his neck, he carried her to the bed and gently lay her down. He removed the shirt he had come to learn once belong to her brother and kissing his way down her abdomen and began removing her panties. He was half hard when he'd risen from the bed, and now, looking down at his gloriously naked soulmate his cock grew fully erect.

          She laughed beneath him even as her hands sought out the waistband for his flannel bottoms. He obliged her as she pulled them and his briefs down and kicked them off when they awkwardly reached his ankles. He leaned back down and kissed her long and hard, their tongues dancing and caressing. Pulling back he reached for the box on the nightstand and pulled out a condom, Wanda immediately took it away from him and held it in her unsteady hands, not meeting his gaze. He looked down at her questioningly, stroking her hair and wondering if something was wrong, some much so that he found himself asking before he even realized it. "What is it?"

          She bit her lip and worried it between her teeth, a habit he always found adorably arousing. "It's just, being here, being around Clint and Laura and their kids, seeing how much they love each other." She stopped, still not looking at him. Lincoln had a suspicion of what was going on, but he needed to hear it from Wanda. "It's just, we are both two consenting adults, and we both love each other and intent to spend our lives together." She suddenly continued in a rush, and yes, this was going exactly where Lincoln thought it was. She turned back to look at him, "I-I never used to want children, but now, seeing Clint and Laura with theirs, I just-I don't know. We're both clean and it's not likely going to happen on the first go anyways, but maybe tonight we could not use this?" She finished holding up the condom between them with two shaking fingers.

          He enveloped her hand holding the condom, between both of his and smiled down at her. "You're right, statistically it's not likely going to happen on the first try, and if you wake up in the morning having changed your mind there's the morning after pill. And Wanda, all I want is for you to be happy, would this - kids - make you happy?"

          "I don't know." She whispered, "I know you make me happy, and I want everything with you. Do you want children?"

          "I honestly don't think either of us are in the right space emotionally for them, but then is anyone really ready for children, even after they've had them? But yes, I would someday like to. As long as it is with you."

          She worried her lip again as he watched her chocolate eyes dart nervously around the room, "so?"

          "Your choice." He told her honestly. He really didn't think he was ready for parenthood, but if it was what might help his soulmate heal from all her wounds than he would gladly help her get pregnant. And just the thought of her round with their growing child had him growing impossibly harder. He watched her take a deep breath, her eyes closed, releasing it she looked up at him and tossed the wrapped condom back into the box. He leaned forward and kissed her again, positioning himself between her legs. Testing her, he pushed two fingers into her core and found that despite her nerves over the conversation they had just had, she was dripping wet.

          He guided himself to her entrance, and lifted both her legs over his shoulders. She eyed him in shocked wonder, already asking what he was doing as she placed her left foot flat against his words in an effort to stop their marks from meeting. "If we do this, we do this completely Wanda. You said it yourself, we are both consenting adults that love each other and I fully intend to spend the rest of my life with you. Look, some people might say we're moving too fast but I say when you know you know, why waste time? Besides, we're risking parenthood here, shouldn't we at least be bonded?"

          She laughed beneath him even as she nodded. "I want you in me first."

          He rolled his eyes and in one long thrust was inside of her warm, wet, welcoming heat. Her walls clenched around him almost as if welcoming him home with a hug, he took his time pulling out, muttering "such a demanding woman, is it too late to turn back?" And as he thrust back in, she angled her foot to allow their bond to form. His world seemed to explode around him as the feel of being inside her grew to unparalleled heights. He could feel himself inside her, but he could also feel how she felt holding him inside herself as he kept thrusting. He could feel her inner walls trying to hold him in even as he pulled back, simply put, he felt everything and then things he never dreamed of feeling. But most of all, above feeling Wanda's pleasure and lust, he felt her love.

          They came simultaneously moments later, not from the building lust and friction of their bodies meeting each other in pounding thrusts, but from the feedback loop of their love for each other. The lust was only a secondary contributor, much as love might have been in the past. They were both silent, Lincoln absorbing Wanda's silent scream with a deep kiss. In the half hour it took them to fully recover from their climax, they heard the muted sounds of Clint and Laura talking the floor below them, and little Nathaniel begin to cry in his room, they heard Clint curse but leave to soothe his crying son all the same.

          Holding his soulmate to his heart he kissed her, noting the faraway look in her eyes. "What are you thinking?"

          She blinked and met his gaze with a smile, "What it would be like to be parents. I know there is a lot of ... unpleasant things to it, the lack of sleep and the constant crying being the worst, but there is a lot of good things too."

          "There are, yes." He agreed laying a kiss to the tip of her nose, "There wouldn't be much Avenging I'd imagine. From what you've told me Natasha would be the one to object to you staying even more than old world Captain America."

          "I think I would be alright with that. I don't see why things need to be avenged, things should not need to be, things should not get to that point. Maybe the world needs defending more than avenging. But then, what happens when defending it isn't enough?"

          "That's when the Avengers should be brought in, but who would be these defenders of yours?"

          "Daisy's caterpillars perhaps?" She shrugged, "or perhaps we already have our defenders and they're just not ready to be seen yet. Either way, I do not think I need to be a superhero, perhaps an appearance a time or two when the need is truly great, but I would rather be with you. You and the family we make for ourselves."

          "I think we already have our family. Clint says Laura calls you her sister, the kids here love you. Clint wants only to see you happy. And you have me, and I'm not going anywhere. We are your family, and in all of us you still have your brother. Pietro's body might have died, but I think his spirit is still here."

          She smiled up at him, stroking his jaw "I think you are right. You, Clint, Laura, the children, they are my family. They are who I have come to think about when I think of home, and you have helped me see that. If Pietro is still here, my only wish is that he would like you."

          "I hope so too." He laughed even as he kissed her. "I love you."

          "And I love you." She whispered back snuggling deep into his arms, and through their bond Lincoln felt how true those words were as he pushed his love back to Wanda. She looked up at him suddenly, her eyes slightly wet and kissed him wordlessly. "Want to try again?"

          "I'm still full from dinner, I'm amazed I even managed one round." He exclaimed in complete honesty, but smiling all the same.

          She met his grin with one of her own. "It would be good, work off all the food." She wiggled her eyebrows and kissed him hungrily, the arousal he felt through the bond causing his cock to stir.


End file.
